Who knows what the future might bring?
by YAXON
Summary: Set a few weeks after Things Change. Beast Boy and Raven have a heart-to-heart after Beast Boy gets fed up with how lousy their friendship has been as of late. Raven reveals her theory behind Terra's possible resurrection, and Beast Boy shows a certain measure of maturity. BB x Rae Friendship. One-shot.


Beast Boy made his way purposefully through the halls of the tower. He was a man on a mission, as far as he was concerned. With the whole Brotherhood of Evil debacle that spanned several months, Beast Boy hadn't gotten to hang out with the team in quite a while…

Well, okay. He'd gotten to see Rob, Cy, and Star plenty. But Raven? They hadn't gotten to interact much at all ever since she beat back Trigon. At least, not one-on-one, or two-on-one, if Cyborg wanted to hang out with the two of them. And that really rubbed Beast Boy the wrong way, 'cause she seemed to really be opening up to him prior to banishing her dad to another dimension. Then the Brotherhood of Evil happened, and, well… there just wasn't a time for Beast Boy to try and reconnect with her personally.

 _"Oh, I'm gonna get a lot of mileage out of this one."_

Beast Boy shook his head at the memory. Raven, who rarely cracked jokes, said she was going to get much amusement out of teasing him about his real name. Nothing ever came of that, really – not after how serious everything got soon after that – but it wasn't as if Raven gave him the cold shoulder or anything. She'd been nice enough in passing, and even had his back on all the missions they were together on, but he hadn't loosened her up even once the past several months. There was just no free time to get under her skin, and Beast Boy _liked_ getting under Raven's skin.

Beast Boy wasn't really sure why, though. The day they met, he made it a point to make Raven laugh at one of his jokes, or at least make her crack a smile. It'd been his mission, and he'd succeeded, if their friendship was any indication. Raven would never admit it, though.

She just _had_ to be the distant, straight-faced empath.

At last the green changeling arrived at his destination. Beast Boy hesitated here, as he had the last few times he'd attempted to approach Raven. Something had changed fundamentally about their relationship, but Beast Boy couldn't really place it. She just seemed… unapproachable. Like… she's been avoiding him lately. Like really, really recently.

Beast Boy didn't like that. He wanted to reconnect with his friend. But some part of him hesitated. What if that's not what _she_ wanted? What if this was her way of telling him she didn't wanna be friends anymore? … Beast Boy never liked visiting those thoughts, but those doubts just wouldn't disappear. Things were much simpler back when his goal in life was to get Raven to open up. But now? Now Beast Boy wasn't sure what to think. It made his head hurt dwelling on this for so long.

Beast Boy had had enough of running away, however. He tentatively raised a hand to knock on her door, but automated machine opened of its own accord, revealing the empath that Beast Boy had been thinking so hard about for the longest time. Her face was blank, but there was a slight air of annoyance about her as she stared at Beast Boy.

"… Well, come in already." Raven droned monotonously, standing aside to let the green boy in. When her teammate didn't comply, she developed a slight tick mark on her forehead and she stared at him deadpan. "I'll answer your questions; just get in here _now_."

That snapped Beast Boy out of his stupor, and the changeling slipped into the room. Raven stepped away from the door, and it slid shut. Beast Boy waved weakly at her once his eyes adjusted to the darkness of Raven's room.

"Um… hi."

"… Hi." Raven dryly greeted him back, to which Beast Boy sweatdropped.

"So, uh… How long did you know I was out there?" Beast Boy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Dumb question, but it'd hopefully lighten the mood.

"Since you started soliciting outside my door three days ago…" Raven answered, causing Beast Boy to blush slightly. Sighing, Raven tried again, "What do you want to know, Beast Boy?"

Well, there went that plan.

"You and your big words…" Beast Boy grumbled, arms crossed. "I was not 'soliciting'… Um… Heh… So how've you been? Haven't hung out in a while."

Raven looked uncomfortable here as Beast Boy brought up the heart of the matter. Suddenly the floor looked much more interesting.

"Super." Raven mumbled, not entirely sure how to proceed. She looked up at him and sighed again, feeling his confusion through her powers. "I'm fine, Beast Boy. Really."

Beast Boy spread out his arms as he took a step toward Raven.

"Then what's the problem? I know the past year has been crazy - I'm talkin' about the last few weeks more than anything else. I know we weren't like besties, but it's been like when we first met! Did I cross a line or somethin'? 'Cause I'm sorry if I did."

Raven shook her head and shut her eyes.

"No, Beast Boy… You didn't do anything wrong. I just… I think I know what might have happened with Terra. I still can't say for certain that the girl you saw was Terra, but… there's a possibility it was."

Beast Boy's eyes bugged out as Raven said this. The other Titans had been tiptoeing around the subject for ages now, so Raven was the first to breach the subject with him ever since it first came up.

"Is that why you've kept to yourself lately? Jeez, I'm sorry, Rae."

Raven shook her head again.

"Actually, it didn't take me very long to work it out… Well, if it is what happened, that is; I'm still not a hundred percent certain. I didn't want to get your hopes up."

"Well, go on, spill!" Beast Boy encouraged her. He took a seat on her bed, which garnered a slight scowl. But she let it slide for now.

"Back when I became the Portal that brought my… father… to this world, I ended up killing everyone on the planet except you guys… You remember that, right?"

Beast Boy hummed thoughtfully. He nodded.

"I dunno if I'd say 'killed'… More like they were turned into statues. But what does that… Oh." Beast Boy squeaked as he realized this was where she was going with this.

"Yeah." Raven rolled her eyes. "Then I banished Trigon and returned our world to normal. Everyone stopped being statues, obviously. Terra was never caught up in my father's Spell that made this world his dominion, but I don't think my powers would need to make such a distinction. Terra was a living, breathing human once before, and my powers obviously spread out on a global scale. It'd make sense if she was brought back with the rest of the world. But we'll never really know, since we don't know _when_ Terra's statue disappeared."

"That's true…" Beast Boy mused, his eyes downcast as he looked to the floor. Silence ensued for several minutes before Beast Boy looked back at Raven. "So I get that this has been eating at you, but what I don't get is why? Your theory's totally valid. I wouldn't have freaked out or anything; I wouldn't be able to go see that girl again if I wanted to. She wants nothing to do with me or the rest of us, Rae."

"I know," Raven replied quietly. "I guess I just didn't want to hurt you by bringing her up again. I couldn't just pretend to not know anything, if you asked about it for whatever reason one day. And don't try to tell me you're fine talking about your old girlfriend like this. You are hurting."

Beast Boy weakly smiled at her.

"Yeah… I guess I am." Beast Boy patted the general area of his chest where his heart was located. "It hurts a lot right here, y'know? But it's not like I blame you for anything. Heck, because of you, Terra might be _alive_ again. How could I be mad about that? Sure, she's pretending she doesn't know us… But that's her choice. She's gotta be feeling a lot of guilt for what she put us through. I can't just force her to come back to us in both mind and body. Things wouldn't be the same."

Raven glanced at him curiously. His emotions weren't betraying his words, which made her have a newfound respect for her teammate.

"You're taking this a lot better than I thought you would… You sure you're not upset?"

Beast Boy laughed lightly.

"Sure, I'm upset you kept quiet this long," he joked half-heartedly. But with a shake of his head and the downward curve of his mouth, Raven knew he really wasn't upset about this at all. "Rae, Terra was right about one thing when we parted ways that day – things change. I'm gonna miss hanging out with her, but I think I'm getting over my crush on her, bit by bit."

Raven looked to the side again as she apologized.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you my theory sooner, then…"

Beast Boy waved a hand dismissively.

"Nah, if there's one thing you did, you gave me time to cope, to come to grips with what happened. I don't think I'll ever get over it one hundred percent, but I'll be fine."

"Good." Raven replied as she turned to look him in the eye. "We're only human, Beast Boy. … Well, superhuman, I suppose. My point is, we still feel emotions, even the negative ones. We're better off acknowledging that, on some level, we'll always feel emotional about things and events that deeply impact us. The initial pain will fade away, but there'll be emotional scars left over."

"Totally," Beast Boy agreed wholeheartedly. He shot her a cheesy grin. "See? I'm smart about some things. I'm not a complete dummy."

Raven snorted lightly and gave a small smirk in return.

"I guess you're right…" Raven trailed off as she was suddenly enveloped in a bone-crushing hug. She raised an eyebrow at the changeling. "What are you doing?"

"Leaving you a happy scar!" Beast Boy answered simply. "You'll always remember this hug."

Raven rolled her eyes and used her powers to levitate Beast Boy back onto her bed.

"I'd reeeally rather forget this happened, if it's all the same to you." She said in that raspy voice that Beast Boy had come to love over the years.

"Awww! But you got to hug me back when…" Beast Boy found himself unable to finish that sentence, as Raven used her powers to slap a piece of paper over his mouth.

"I'd like to forget that, too." Raven deadpanned. But she offered a small smile all the same when he peeled the paper off his face and pouted at her.

"Fine…" Beast Boy whined. But then he stuck out his hand, grinning ear to ear. "So… we're still friends?"

Raven stared at the outstretched appendage a moment before shaking her head slightly, the small smile never leaving her face.

"Still friends."

Beast Boy couldn't be happier with how the day was working out.

"Sooo… Wanna go play multiplayer with Cy and Rob? I bet you'd beat 'em easy!"

"Don't push it." Raven drawled. But she settled on coming out to the common room to read. She owed the changeling that much for making him worry needlessly over their friendship.

Would her newfound respect for Beast Boy ever lead to something more in the future? Maybe. He'd proven, time and again, to have a lot more depth to him than that goofy exterior he put on for everybody. Raven couldn't simply dismiss the possibility anymore.

They'd just have to see what the future would bring them.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Veeery cheesy, but there ya go. My second contribution to my eighth year anniversary of writing fanfiction. Weird year to celebrate, but it's my favorite number. :P**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed! Sorry it was so short. This might be my last contribution to the TT fandom, as I find it somewhat difficult to keep the characters IC – hence the absence of the other Titans. But I still respect the series, and wanted to give one last homage to the fandom. There're a lot of you guys out there that write it so much better than me, so kudos to you guys! Yeah, I'm a bit picky when it comes to sifting through the stories, but I've found some gems in the TT fandom, so this is also done in appreciation of that.**

 **Keep up the good work, guys!**


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